Review: 'Herb & Dorothy' do the math

File photo

A scene from "Herb and Dorothy: 50x50."

A scene from "Herb and Dorothy: 50x50." (File photo)

Sheri Linden

Megumi Sasaki's follow-up to her first documentary, 2008's "Herb & Dorothy," is as engaging and unpretentious as its subjects, the Manhattan couple who became unlikely benefactors of Washington, D.C.'s National Gallery of Art. "Herb & Dorothy 50x50" chronicles the closing chapter in their life as collectors, at the same time shedding light on the challenging proposition of running a museum outside major-city art hubs.

Lifelong civil servants who shared a one-bedroom apartment with a few cats and turtles, Herbert and Dorothy Vogel amassed one of the most important collections of minimalist and conceptual art ever assembled. Beginning in the 1960s, her pay as a librarian covered their living expenses; Herb's postal-worker salary went to their purchases, mostly works on paper acquired directly — and sometimes on the payment plan — from up-and-coming New York artists.

Sixteen years after their 1992 donation to the National Gallery, which contained more pieces than one museum could ever display, the institution created a gift project, presenting 50 pieces from the collection to one museum in each state. It was a boon for regional galleries, some of which depend entirely on philanthropy.

Following the mutually devoted duo as they visit the recipient museums, Sasaki's film is less personal than the earlier documentary. The gnomish Herb, who died in 2012, remains fascinating, though. Lauded by artists for his "ability to see," he chooses not to speak much. "Somebody has to listen," he says, with the same succinct clarity as when he remarks, without exaggeration, "What we did then is now art history."